Day 5 - Once in lifetime experience - Helihike @ Fox Glacier

This is nature at work. A week after we left, 2 Australian Indians were crushed at the terminal when tonnes of ice collapsed as they went too close for pictures. Shocking, isn't it? Were we plain lucky? We had a good guide, who carefully examines each ice structure for signs of stress as we trampled on or walked under ice caves. Most importantly, the heli-hike experience allowed us to get as close as we could to these ancient structures in a safe and organized way. As laopo puts it, these are only a few countries in the world where glaciers are easily accessible. Yet New Zealand presents many many other fantastic wonders of the world...all in one place.


Our heli-hike experience started with a cranky bus ride to the take-off site. It was a really ancient bus - kind of reminded me of my primary school schoolbus, except it goes dead much more often (and it was only a 5 min journey). And one wonders if the chopper would behave the same. But the excitement on our faces were evident (mainly her since I don't get easily excited) as soon as we got on the helicopter. Being grossly underweight, she was put at the front seat and me at the back to balance the weight, seat belts tightened and ear muffs on. The chopper hovered over the ice-covered mountains and landed at ground zero. Teams 1 and 2 were already squatting with their backs at us as our chopper almost blew them off their feet.

Fox Glacier falls 2,600m on its 13km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres above sea level.

Our guide, Jeff, demonstrated as we strapped metal spikes over our boots. Each armed with a pole and off we went, in single file. Jeff led the way, clearing the ice with his axe, stamping on crushed ice to make stairs-like steps for us so all we have to do is to make sure we get our feet firm on the ground, and the spikes firm into it. The trick is to, contrary to how we walk normally, get the whole feet on the ground at the same time. Cos the spikes are in the middle, we'll probably not survive a few steps if we land on our heels.
Slowly, we climbed up the icy slopes. It was a spectacular sight as one looked down - the glacier stretches, meeting the sea at the horizon, where the weather appeared clear and sunny. Jeff said the thought of partying at the beaches in summer after work was what kept them going at times. A feature of the glacier was ice caves, formed by the ice surface bulging under pressure as the turns of the valley applied brakes on the sliding glacier. These caves come and go - the structure weakens as ice melts under sun and finally collapses. Jeff selected a few deemed safe and we crawled our way through - was extremely hard for the spikes to grip the ice blocks. Glaciers are such majestic structures, we were like ants crawling through my blanket, hoping that I won't sit on them.

A Q&A session ---- Why is glacier blue?

According to wiki, blue ice occurs when all of the air bubbles that are trapped in the ice are squeezed out, and the size of the ice crystals increases, making it clear. The blue color of the ice is a result of an overtone of a OH molecular stretch in the water which absorbs light at the red end of the visible spectrum.
The hike lasted 3 hours - Jeff said we had gone much further up the glacier than the other hikers that day. We returned to the landing site and rid ourselves of the hiking gear. The chopper that was supposed to bring us back came with the next group of hikers - in raincoats. By that time, the skies have turned grey and started to rain - I wonder how they could hike in wet, slippery ice.

When we returned to the town, it was sunshine again, typical of New Zealand weather. The highlight of the day has ended and we were ready for our next destination - Hokitika. I would be tempted to end the blog this way but there were more to come.

Dinner was some yucky Indian food - yucky curry chicken & yucky curry lamb. Okay, that's not the point but I have to mention cos it was really yucky. Highlight of the night was worms - yes, worms. Glowing ones, in fact. No, we didn't eat worms because we were still hungry after having yucky Indian food. The great thing about NZ is, you find treasures everywhere, even in a small town like Hokitika.

Just a few hundred meters from our hotel, there is this short passage into a forested area where some thousands (or more?) of glow worms reside. Apparently, they are the larvae of some kind of flies* [description below for those who are interested]. No photos but it's not hard to imagine, looked like a sea of fireflies (not that I have seen fireflies but I would imagine they look similar),

* glow worms -- the common name for various different groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females which glow through bioluminescence. There are a few major families found in different parts of the worlds. Based on wiki, the one we saw is called Arachnocampa, a genus of four fungus gnat species which are, in their larval stage. What’s interesting is the purpose of the glow – it varies. Some glow do so to attract a male for mating, some glow as a warning signal to predators. But the Arachnocampa larvae on the other hand glow to attract prey like midges into sticky snare lines for the larva to feed on.

Day 4 - 人间仙境 - Milford Sound

Weather in New Zealand changes dramatically, and is unpredictable; contingent plan is always necessary, and often more than one. It was a bit frustrating at the beginning because we have pretty tight travel schedule. But Lao gong soon talked me through it, as it's one of the characterists of New Zealand. Only after I took easy on the planning side, did I start discovering the different beauty of this place. 人说"浓妆淡抹总相宜", 来形容New Zealand 特贴切 --- 无论是阳光下的灿烂,云雾中的神秘,雨水里的浪漫; 都是风情各异,让人怎么也看不厌.

We are heading to Milford Sound today, also known as the Eighth Wonder of the World. 似乎去世外桃源的路都特长，特难走。由于雪山相隔，从Queenstown出发，开车单程要5个小时，为了晚上赶到Fox Glacier, 我们一早就安排坐小型飞机去Milford Sound。说到纽西兰天气的善变，Milford Sound变化无常的天气又是纽西兰之最。去Milford Sound的飞机听说有一多半的都会因为天气而被取消或改程，而我们要等到飞前的几个小时才会知道。怀着担心的心情，一夜没好睡，清晨5点多就起身查询。虽然此时屋外阳光灿烂，但听说昨天夜里山区里还下了雪, 峡湾那边的天气还是不适合飞行。折中的办法是我们飞到Te Anau,再坐1-2个小时的车去Milford Sound。

Queenstown lies at the outlet to Lake Wakatipu

去Milford的路上，一直阴雨连绵。车窗外，树间交错，山林葱郁；一团团的薄雾飘过，让这画面多了份水墨画般的灵气。 世界这么大，这么美；想想城市里喧杂和烦恼，觉得真是无谓。

Thousands of Russell Lupin flowers create a carpet of color waving gently in the breeze along the Milford Road in Fiordland National Park.

如果按原计划直接飞到峡湾，就会错过这片花海。好像我们生活中无法避免的小波折，与其去难过这些不如意，不如换个角度，去欣赏路边的景色。

Our driver/guide told us a story about the well-known national symbol of New Zealand - Kiwi bird. Although named as a "bird", the kiwi is actually flightless. And probably due to the lack of predators, the kiwi didn't have highly developed protective and defensive adaptations. Kiwis are endangered due to habitat loss and imported animals. The "kiwi tragedy" started with the migration of Europeans. Prior to Europeans coming to New Zealand, the kiwi had enjoyed a secure environment for thousands of years. The Europeans first brought in sheep, but they soon got tired of eating lamb, so they introduced rabbits to the island. Due to the lack of predators, rabbit population started increasing at insane rate that upset the Europeans. And "Smart" humans soon came out a solution; they imported rabbits' predators to this land. However, when these foxes, cats arrived, instead of chasing fast-running rabbits, they discovered thousands of kiwis walking around leisurely, and decided that they are going to have “chicken” instead. (Pardon their ignorance since they had never seen kiwi bird before.) – Another tragedy caused by 人类的自作聪明。

途经一个小镇，名字已经记不得了。司机说大家都叫这个“厕所镇”，因为全镇只有2家人，公共厕所倒是有几十个（给游客用的）。也不知是真是假？！

位于Fiordland National Park中的Milford Sound 形成于上个冰河时代。200万年前，几千米厚的巨大冰川移走后留下幽深的峡谷，灌入海水形成今天的峡湾。峡湾两岸是海拔1200多米的陡峭的岩壁，山上的积雪融化，化成无数条瀑布挂在峭壁上，飞泻下来，直入大海。

轻风拂袂, 飘然欲仙

美得让人窒息的Lake Wakatipu

回到Queenstown, 又要马不停蹄地赶去Fox Glacier, 车程大概330km.
油画般的Lake Hawea
河道转了个弯，Lake Hawea又呈现出另一种宝蓝色
Lake Wanaka
Sunset at the West Coast.

Day 3 - 如诗如画的小镇 - Queenstown

本来计划一早去terminal lake trail,但一起身,看到窗外云雾濛濛 ,雨下个不停;只好改为计划II -- 直接开去Queenstown. 刚开了20多分钟,美丽的Lake Pukaki渐渐出现在眼前. 由于今天风大,湖上被吹起了层层浪花,让本就一望无际的湖泊好似大海一样. 阳光下的湖面,粼光閃閃,波紋披金. 昨天还是温柔的蓝色,今天却亮得让人无法直视. 看到后视镜里的Mt. Cook 还是笼罩在云雾之中,暗自庆幸昨天好运,看到了蓝天白云下的主峰.
在Twizel, 这个温暖(it felt so good to be warm coming from Mt Cook)的小镇里吃了顿营养brunch (lamb pizza and bagel w/ smoked salmon), 我们继续向南开.

途径Lindis Pass,这个山脉里开满了种野花,后来Google才知道叫做Russell Lupin. 和昨天一样,沿途的风光是景随人移，处处是景. 大自然真是最佳的调色师-- 不同的气候，地貌， 造就了各异的风景。银白色的雪峰配的是如宝石般亮眼剔透的碧蓝湖水；万里晴空下是漫山金黄色的灌木丛；雨水充足的山脉里，缭绕的云雾点缀着翠绿的森林，倍显青葱色彩。不用开车的我，（辛苦了，老公！）一次次被车窗外的美景震撼着，一路上不断重复着“好美啊，好美啊。。。”

We got a big box of super cheap & fresh cherries on the way but as a result got jammed at a junction some 20 miles from Queesntown due to a traffic accident. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we were just 3 cars behind the crashed vehicle and had to make a big detour. Thankfully, GPS came to the rescue, we finally arrived at Oaks Shore Apartments without having to waste too much time. The 1-bed room we booked was spacious. The views over the lake and mountain ranges on our balcony was stunning.

似乎开进Otago district 后一直在下雨。那种湿嗒嗒，冰凉凉的感觉真不好。“去泡个热水澡吧”老公说。听到都觉得身子暖了起来-- 那还等什么呢 -- GPS 拿来，destination: Onsen Hot Pools. 虽然在Tripadvisor上好评如潮，Onsen pool is not massively advertised. 刚开到Onsen的停车场时，还小小吃了一惊--横看竖看都找不到做SPA的地方。顺着指示牌，一直走到山坡边，才发现一条崎岖的小路，和建在山崖边的Onsen，还真有点儿“柳暗花明”的感觉。

走进全木质的SPA房间，最让人惊艳的就是眼前360度壮丽的Alpine风光。归功于它得天独厚的位置，Arthur Point 的峡谷，山下Shotover River 的激流，远方灰蓝色的山脉，全都一览无余。它的窗户的设计也很特别，落地的玻璃窗一直连到天花板。全打开后，几乎变成了个露天的SPA，真是一点儿都没浪费周围的美景。泡在热气腾腾的山泉水中，阵阵清风拂面，再叹一口香甜多汁的樱桃；顿时令人有种沉淀心灵，洗尽铅华的感动

Day 2 - 尘世美 - Mt Cook & Lake Tekapo

想去的地方太多了，加上自信我们都是吃苦耐劳的人，我把行程安排得超紧凑--- 看来这次假期是注定没有懒觉睡的了。一早起身，租车，搬行李，check-out，plugging in GPS –- 正式开始我们的road trip.

刚开出城市，映入眼帘的就是人们印象里最typical的New Zealand 风景 --- 绿油油的草原，山丘，和一望无“计”（此处解为 “无法计算”）的羊群。 老公说，这么多羊，看几天我就会厌了。但事实证明直到road trip的最后一天，我还是对这软绵绵，手感超好的动物爱不“释手”。（详情见"Gimpy"篇）

看到一处较宽的路间，停下车，我轻手轻脚得试图接近羊群，想拍一张羊儿优哉闲哉吃草的照片。可惜，当我离它们还有八丈远的时候，原本还在吃早饭的羊儿们，全都抬起头，怒视着我；然后，在几秒钟内，齐齐撤退到了几十米外，而且还不松懈，大有我上前一步它们便后退十米的架势。和这些羊僵持了一阵子后，我终于决定不和它们计较了。

Of course, the highlight of the day is not these cowardly sheep, but lakes, glacier lakes. Our first stop – Lake Tekapo.

The charm of glacier lake comes from its incredibly beautiful turquoise-blue color, it is so pretty that it seems to belong to a different world. The extraordinary color is due to the fact that the lakes in this area are mainly fed from glaciers. The glacier, which is basically a huge, slow-moving mass of ice, crushes mountain rock on its journey from the slopes of the Southern Alps to the rivers of the massive valleys. The crushed rock produces a fine, flour-like powder that remains suspended in the water and, when reflecting light, produces the unique blue color for which Lake Tekapo is renowned.

It's not hard to take postcard-like photos here because it's picture-perfect everywhere you go, every angle you look at. However, it's difficult to stick to the original schedule because everything here is just too beautiful to say "bye"to.
The Church of the Good Shepherd -- a tiny church that possesses the most heavenly of views.

Via the window of the church, which provides a refreshing view on the lake and mountains, perhaps also on the meaning of life.
Lake Pukaki, share the color of Lake Tekapo, is our second stop. It's bigger, brighter and quieter. With the surrounding impressive snow-capped peaks, the scenery is simply stunning! Overlooking Lake Pukaki, we see Mt Cook standing tall behind it -- and it's where we are heading to, today's final destination.

Side notes, two things we'd love to do but didn't have time:
1) Stargazing at Lake Tekapo. (recently heard that New Zealand is working on a bid to make Tekapo the world's first night sky reserve)
2) Visiting Mt. salmon farm -- the highest freshwater salmon farm in the world. Laogong was very disappointed to see the gate to the road closed after thinking about having fresh salmon sashimi for the whole day.

从Lake Pukaki 驶向Mt Cook，刚开始还是晴空万里。当我们越靠近Mt Cook，碧蓝的天空只出现在后视镜里，而眼前厚厚的如棉花糖般的云朵则越积越多。等我们到了Hermitage Mount Cook Hotel，已是乌云密布，再也看不到一丝的阳光了； 气温骤降了十几度--- 山区的天气就是如此多变！

不过对此领会不多的老公提议我们先去个trail 走走。 我们也算是全面武装了---衣服穿了一层又一层，能挡风的都戴上了：帽子，围巾，甚至太阳镜 --- 努力把自己打扮成个粽子，但成效不大。从山谷中吹来的风，大得让我站不稳。再加上径流冰川，那风真是冰冷得刺骨。走了好久，都没有暖和起来的迹象；只是觉得寒气钻心，越吹越头疼。唉，明明两个小时前，我还穿着短袖晒太阳呢……

没有学乖的我们，半夜又披着被子，到凉台上看星星。 黑丝绒般的夜空，已和四周连成一体，不分边际。这种入夜后的黑暗本属自然，现在却是弥足珍贵。满天如钻石般的繁星，好似触手可及，让人不禁看得痴了，久久地收不回视线......

Day 1 - Arriving Christchurch

After 10+ hour of flight, Lao gong slept like a baby on the flight from Auckland to Christchurch. zzzzz....zzzzzzz.....

在New Zealand的第一顿晚餐, 我们当然叫了当地出名的Lamb chop, 果然肉嫩,汁多,完全没羶味.在之后几天的行程中,先后试过lamb pizza, braised lamb shank; 都超好味,而我们也很快知道好味的原因---如此的好山好水养育出的羊,确是没得比.

It was almost 9pm after dinner, but the sky looked like if it were in the afternoon. The south island of New Zealand enjoys long-hour of sunlight in the summer time -- sunset usually occurs after 10pm.

On the way back to hotel, we passed by Christchurch Cathedral Square, where coincidentally there was a new year's eve concert - 对于一个跨年晚会说, 人数还真不算多.但再想想,在这个羊比人多的地方，这样已经称得上是“盛况”了吧. Although wanted to stay till count down, we decided to head back hotel to have a good night of sleep, and get ourselves ready for the 6-day-road trip.